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Laptop AC Adapter Connection Problem

Hey, guys, I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me with a problem I've been having with my laptop.

I have an HP pavilion ze1230 it's about six months old. For about two months, now, the connection between the the power adapter and the computer has been increasingly loose. I am refering to the back of the laptop...when I push in on the connection I get the full connection (battery icon disappears, etc) but if I just plug it in and let it be it doesn't make enough of a connection and it goes to battery.

After looking in the hole where the adapter plugs in I can tell that the casing slot inside is really loose. My question is this: if I take off that back plate on my laptop can I just tighten that casing?? I know I could take the laptop in to be serviced but I don't have that much time. This *appears* to be something I could do myself.

Do any of you know or have any experience with this? If so, I'd appreciate any advice.

I've looked here and on google and haven't really found anything. The problem is getting worse and I'm at a loss.

I had that happen to me... except for... it wasn't loose. The power adapter actaully cracked on the MOBO. I took it all apart and thats what I found. After a short time... it would start to smoke and then damn thing never recharged again. It was out of warranty... and would have cost like $600 for a new MOBO, so I said forget it. Sold it on Ebay for spare parts...

Getting to the power adapters on those things aren't fun. I don't know about HPs, but I know on the Compaq that I had... I had to take almost the whole guts out. The display, keyboard, cdrom, and a couple of other things out to get to it. Tiny tiny screws... and hard to put back together. Pretty cool to see the inside though.

Have phun! If it proves to be too much work... just send it in. Taking it apart yourself could void your warranty... so make sure it isn't.

Quitmzilla is a firefox extension that gives you stats on how long you have quit smoking, how much money you\'ve saved, how much you haven\'t smoked and recent milestones. Very helpful for people who quit smoking and used to smoke at their computers... Helps out with the urges.

i don't think there's a good solution, but in all cases if you send the laptop for service since it's under warranty.
they would charge you for that, ( misuse )

When the power of Love overcomes the Love of power, the world will know peace... Jimi Hendrix
-------------------------------------------------------------
I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask...... what was war?

If it is loose connections to the pins themselves.. i.e. internal to your laptop, you'll
have to take it apart... but possibly you could get away with a "MacGyver " fix until
such time that you think you'll have time for a warrantee repair.

you could try putting a piece of duct tape on one side of your adapter plug, forcing
it to be pushed slightly to one side. also, if you can get a pair of needlenose pliers
onto the pins.. you might be able to slightly bend the pins giving a better contact.

sumdumguy, that is exactly what I was thinking of doing (duct tape and all) after I take a peek inside. I just want to know exactly what I'm working with first. Love the "MacGyver" fix...I say that all the time.

I turned my laptop off lastnight when I went to bed. I don't usually do this but I got a little worried about what phishphreek said in his post. Anyway, interestingly, this morning when I turned it on and tried the connection it wouldn't "connect" at all. After it had some time to heat up (I'm assuming this is the reason) I was at least able to get it to make the connection some of the time.

I'm going to open it this afternoon and see if anything can be done.

Thanks to all of you for your responses -- I knew I could count on you guys!

mathgirl32: I didn't mean to make you paranoid... just a word of caution...

Those are the exact symptoms that I had. I guess it didn't help that I used it all the time in places where I was moving around... I'd play games in my chair and bed, and I guess from moving around all the time... it just worked loose and cracked the adapter piece. The MOBO was fine... but the adapter was soldered to the MOBO.

I went to virtually every electronics store around here and shopped some online too. The only answer I could get from people was. "Oh, you can't fix that. You have to get a new MOBO." Nobody could replace the adapter/converter peice. The problem with that was... everything was integrated. The processor was "stuck" on it and I couldn't get that off, memory was built in along with everything else. I think the only thing I could take off the board was the connections for the display, cdrom, floppy and expanded memory.

It sucked.

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